Several Top Federal Prosecutors RESIGN After Order to Drop Charges Against NYC Mayor

A few days after President Trump’s Department of Justice ordered federal prosecutors to drop the charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, several top officials have abruptly resigned.

Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, was the first to quit.

She was ordered to drop the corruption case against NYC Mayor Adams by the DOJ, who claimed the case was politically motivated…, but instead, Sassoon turned in her resignation.

Sassoon was followed by two senior officials in the DOJ, John Keller and Kevin Driscoll, as well as three more DOJ deputies: Rob Heberle, Jenn Clarke and Marco Palmieri.

Here’s what we know:

BREAKING: Six top DOJ officials resign over order to drop Eric Adams case — AP

Those resigning include Acting US Attorney Danielle Sassoon, Acting Head of the Public Integrity Section John Keller, Rob Heberle, Jenn Clarke, and Marco Palmieri of Public Integrity, and Kevin…

— Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) February 14, 2025

🚨🇺🇸 THREE TOP DOJ OFFICIALS RESIGN AFTER ORDER TO DROP NYC MAYOR’S CASE

Three senior DOJ officials—Danielle Sassoon, John Keller, and Kevin Driscoll—resigned today after refusing to drop bribery and fraud charges against Mayor Eric Adams.

His alleged decade-long campaign cash… https://t.co/DZ3JdAXezi pic.twitter.com/yKIoSqFtcm

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 13, 2025

The acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, resigns after refusing to follow orders to drop the case against Mayor Eric Adams. Five other attorneys have also stepped down. Isn’t that six corrupt prosecutors America can live without? pic.twitter.com/uxexIuP4Op

— • ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ ™ • (@4Mischief) February 14, 2025

Reuters reported:

Six senior Justice Department officials, including Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, resigned on Thursday rather than comply with an order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City’s mayor, according to internal Justice Department letters seen by Reuters and people familiar with the matter.

The departures mark a sign of resistance from career Justice Department officials to President Donald Trump’s efforts to overhaul the agency to end what he calls its weaponization against political opponents. Critics say Trump’s changes threaten to subject criminal prosecutions to political whims.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, the Trump administration’s recent pick to temporarily lead the office prosecuting New York Mayor Eric Adams, resigned her post on Thursday, according to the memorandum by Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, a Trump appointee.

Sassoon said in a letter seen by Reuters that she had been prepared to seek a new indictment accusing Adams of destroying evidence and directing others to do so.

Bove had ordered Sassoon to dismiss the case on Monday, in what legal experts called an effort by Trump administration officials to assert control over a prosecutor’s office that has long prided itself on independence from politics.

Adams, a Democrat, has forged ties with Trump, a Republican. Adams has argued he was targeted by former President Joe Biden’s administration for criticizing its immigration policy. Bove wrote on Monday that the case was interfering with Adams’ ability to help Trump’s immigration crackdown.

In his Thursday memo, Bove wrote that Sassoon had refused to comply with what he called his office’s finding that the case against Adams amounted to “weaponization” of the justice system.

“Your office has no authority to contest the weaponization finding,” wrote Bove, Trump’s former personal criminal defense lawyer. “The Justice Department will not tolerate the insubordination.”

Bove wrote that the two main trial prosecutors on the Adams case would be placed on leave. He also said his office would take over the Adams case and move to dismiss it, though no formal motion to dismiss had been filed yet on Thursday afternoon.

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In the letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi dated February 12 and seen by Reuters on Thursday, Sassoon said it would be improper to dismiss the charges in return for Adams’ help on immigration, in addition to saying she had planned new charges.

The New York Times provided more details on the resignations:

Manhattan’s U.S. attorney on Thursday resigned rather than obey an order from a top Justice Department official to drop the corruption case against New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams.

Then, when Justice Department officials transferred the case to the public integrity section in Washington, which oversees corruption prosecutions, the two men who led that unit also resigned, according to five people with knowledge of the matter.

Several hours later, three other lawyers in the unit also resigned, according to people familiar with the developments.

The serial resignations represent the most high-profile public opposition so far to President Trump’s tightening control over the Justice Department. They were a stunning repudiation of the administration’s attempt to force the dismissal of the charges against Mr. Adams.

The departures of the U.S. attorney, Danielle R. Sassoon, and the officials who oversaw the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, Kevin O. Driscoll and John Keller, came in rapid succession on Thursday. Days earlier, the acting No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Emil Bove III, had ordered Manhattan prosecutors to drop the case against Mr. Adams.

The agency’s justification for dropping the case was explicitly political; Mr. Bove had argued that the investigation would prevent Mr. Adams from fully cooperating with Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown. Mr. Bove made a point of saying that Washington officials had not evaluated the strength of the evidence or the legal theory behind the case.

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Ms. Sassoon, in a remarkable letter addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi, said that Mr. Bove’s order to dismiss the case was “inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts.”

“I have always considered it my obligation to pursue justice impartially, without favor to the wealthy or those who occupy important public office, or harsher treatment for the less powerful,” she said. “I therefore deem it necessary to the faithful discharge of my duties to raise the concerns expressed in this letter with you and to request an opportunity to meet to discuss them further.”

Ms. Sassoon, 38, made a startling accusation in her letter. She wrote that the mayor’s lawyers had “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.”

A lawyer for Mr. Adams, Alex Spiro, said, “The idea that there was a quid pro quo is a total lie. We offered nothing and the department asked nothing of us.”

“We were asked if the case had any bearing on national security and immigration enforcement, and we truthfully answered it did,” he added.

In her letter, Ms. Sassoon said that Mr. Bove had scolded a member of her team for taking notes during the meeting and ordered that the notes be collected at the meeting’s end.

Ms. Sassoon also wrote that her office had proposed a superseding indictment against the mayor that would have added a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice. The charge, she wrote, would have been “based on evidence that Adams destroyed and instructed others to destroy evidence and provide false information to the F.B.I.” It would also have included additional accusations about his “participation in a straw donor scheme.”

Mr. Spiro, responded, saying that if prosecutors “had any proof whatsoever that the mayor destroyed evidence, they would have brought those charges — as they continually threatened to do, but didn’t, over months and months.

“This newest false claim is just the parting shot of a misguided prosecution,” he said.